Oyo State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) on Monday began the distribution of appointment letters to People With Disabilities (PWDs) engaged in teaching jobs in the state.
The 150 newly recruited teachers were presented their appointment letters at a brief ceremony held at the commission’s Agodi-Secretariat Office, Ibadan.
Aside from the 150 news teachers, an additional 50 PWDs will be engaged in non-teaching service jobs under the ongoing recruitment exercise by the state government.
Chairman of the Commission, Pastor Akinade Alamu said every necessary precaution have been taken to ensure that the slot for the people with disabilities are not taken by people without disabilities.
Alamu said “This is part of the recruitment exercise that we started almost a year ago. The governor last year approved the appointment of 7000 school staffing and we have concluded the teachers’ recruitment and we are already giving out letters to those who are successful both at the interview and CBT level.
“Today, we are giving out letters to People with Disabilities (PWDs). There have been some complaints and misgivings and we decided to give out the letters to them (PWDs) in an open space in the presence of everybody and PWDs themselves so that everybody will see that we have nothing to hide.
“If there is a complaint of the PWDs such as tampering with the appointment of any person, we will all jointly withhold such letters because we will be giving out letters publicly to them all here.
“We have done all we could and we have considered them as people living with disabilities and it would be a sin for any one of us to cheat on them by shortchanging their slots again, which Governor Seyi Makinde also warns us against.”
Also speaking, the Executive Assistant to Governor Seyi Makinde on Administration, Pastor Idowu Ogedengbe said the appointment is based on competence and qualification despite the disabling challenges of the new recruits.
“We started these processes with one clear mind from the governor that we only recruit those who are competent and must be based on a merit system. We only exempted PWDs from writing the CBT but we interviewed all of them.
“We had close to 400 people who applied but about 330 showed up for the interviews and about 150 would be recruited and we have ensured that they have the necessary competencies and qualifications. We also ensured that there are no persons without disabilities who are coming to take the slot of people with disabilities.
“But after we completed the exercise, the umbrella body of PWDs came up to say they saw the names of people without disabilities on the list, which for us was unacceptable and that was why we decided to issue the letter in an open environment for all to see, so that the whole process won’t be hijacked.”
On the measure taken to ensure that the new recruits fit into the work environment despite their physical challenges, Ogedengbe said “we are sure that there won’t be any protest after now, the ministry of education have acquired some teaching aids and some materials that will assist PWDs to carry out their responsibilities of teaching within the Oyo state education sector.
“We are a government that is sympathetic and considerate with people’s challenges. Nobody wants to be a person with disability and the fact they are persons with disabilities does not in any way make them not able to deliver what they can with respect to the development of the educational sector of the state.”
In his remarks, the Executive Assistance to Governor Makinde on Disability Matters, Mr Adekanmbi Ayodele said the new recruit would be posted to schools that they can serve until their work environment is most conducive for them.
He said “Most of our people with disabilities that have been employed today, some of them have access problem while some others are blind and in talking about infrastructure, we went to school with the normal infrastructure and we coped with that.
“Pending the time that the facilities would be all-inclusive, I have advised that they post them to any of the schools. Some of the model schools are accessible and I can assure you that they will cope for now until we will bring some developmental partners to come and help us because the government cannot do everything alone.
“Again, some of them will be positioned downstairs if the schools have upstairs and I can assure you that they will cope. That does not mean they won’t post them to any school because they won’t only post them to only special schools but all the other schools. They can teach and train in any school.”
